From:	Marty <s457033@*******.GU.EDU.AU>
Subject:	Re: Thermographic camouflage
Date:	Sat, 19 Oct 1996 19:10:56 +1000

> > Another point is stealth. Isn't it alot more difficult to hide with cammo
> > from a guy with thermo vision? How do thieves and assassin types get
> > around without being seen then? Is there some sort of cammo which
> > prevents thermo from spotting anything?
>
> I own several US Army combat jackets, and the camos on all of them are
> printed in infra-red camouflages dyes. I don't exactly know how it works,
> but I do know _that_ it works -- against heat-sensing light switches
> anyway. In a hotel corridor a few years ago, I noticed that the lights
> went on much faster for other people than for me. So I went into a
> corridor where the lights were off, and did a little test. The conclusion
> was that the lights stayed off until I either took off my jacket, or the
> thing got my legs (I was wearing normal jeans) in its field of view.
> How effective this is against military-grade thermal viewers is hard to
> say, of course, but it does mean the dyes do work.
>
Some chemicals do absorb strongly in the IR region.... Hadn't thought of
that.

The principle wouldn't be so much as to render you invisible to a thermo
vision sight, but instead to break your outline up and prevent the
image-recognition part of your brain from deciding that you are looking at
a man.

Therefore, always use specially treated camo clothes if you're on a run
*grin*

Bleach